Paul Koudounaris – författare

In this tour de force of original cultural history, Paul Koudounaris takes the reader on an unprecedented international tour of macabre and devotional architectural masterpieces in nearly 20 countries. This is the first book to bring together the world’s most important charnel sites, ranging from the crypts of the Capuchin monasteries in Italy and the skull-encrusted columns of the ossuary in Évora in Portugal, to the strange tomb of a 1960s wealthy Peruvian nobleman decorated with the exhumed skeletons of his Spanish ancestors. Illustrated with specially taken photographs of sites rarely open to the public and forgotten archive images of others long destroyed, this mesmerising, shocking and deeply moving book is an essential memento mori for our modern age.

The remarkable stories of beloved pets – from the famous and unusual to the everyday – memorialized at burial sites around the world, accompanied by a rich selection of archival photos and the author’s evocative images of their final resting places. When a little dog named Cherry died in 1881, his owners arranged for a grave in a nearby gatekeeper’s garden in London. At this time, the idea that a pet, even one that had lived as a family member, might be given a dignified burial was considered comical. But when other pet owners, likewise determined to memorialize their companion animals, followed suit, the world’s first urban pet cemetery was born. More soon followed across Europe, the United States, and then the rest of the world, resulting in a revolution in the way we consider animals. Faithful Unto Death tells the stories of people who gave their hearts to a disparate variety of species, yet were all united in one common belief: that the reward at death for a faithful animal companion should reflect the love it offered during life. Losing a pet has always been a unique kind of pain. No set rituals exist to help provide closure when pets die, there are no readily shared passages from spiritual texts, no community of compassion to surround the mourner and help alleviate grief. And there is a sense of taboo, that it is somehow socially incorrect to mourn an animal as one would a person and feel the pain so intensely. Faithful Unto Death confronts this taboo by telling the stories of people who have memorialized their beloved animals. The book addresses the moral and spiritual prejudices that have historically surrounded animals, and reveals how, in the face of these prejudices, a movement started in the nineteenth century to treat pets with dignity even in death. It is a fight that is still far from over, but the triumphs that are revealed as the book unfolds, found in burial grounds small to grand and on monuments humble to huge, possess the power to touch everyone who has ever cared for an animal companion. In tracing the historical evolution of pet cemeteries through the stories of the people and pets that have been integral to their development, this book reveals both similarities in the way we mourn animal companions and a stunning cultural diversity. From humble Cherry in London to pets of the rich and powerful, this is a history filled with inspiration, wild eccentricity and eternal love.

Following on the success of his book The Empire of Death , which has attracted a global cult following, Paul Koudounaris brings the catacomb saints out of the darkness with this astonishing volume, which includes arresting images of more than seventy spectacular jeweled skeletons and the fascinating stories of dozens more, accompanied by rare archive material. This is the first time that some of these incredible relics – both intriguing historical artifacts and masterpieces of artistic craftsmanship in their own right – have appeared in a publication, with Koudounaris gaining unprecedented access to photograph in some of the most secretive religious establishments in Europe. This will be essential reading for goths, art historians and everyone in between.

A macabre, spectacular and thought-provoking survey of human remains used in decorative, commemorative or devotional contexts across the world today, from the author of Heavenly Bodies and The Empire of Death. Memento Mori takes the reader on a ghoulish but beautiful tour of some of the world’s more unusual sacred sites and traditions, in which human remains are displayed for the benefit of the living. From burial caves in Indonesia festooned with bones, to skulls smoking cigarettes, wearing beanie hats and sunglasses, and decorated with garlands of flowers in South America, Paul Koudounaris ventures beyond the grave to find messages of hope and salvation. His glorious colour photographs and informed commentaries reveal that in many places, the realms of the living and the dead are nowhere near so distinct as contemporary Western society would have us believe.

Es begann mit der Mäusejagd: ein packender Streifzug durch die Geschichte der Hauskatze Kulturgeschichte aus Katzenhand! Auf unnachahmliche Art erzählt Katzendame Baba in diesem prächtig gestalteten Geschenkbuch von der wechselhaften Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Mieze. Gemeinsam mit ihrem zweibeinigen Co-Autor Paul Koudounaris, Kunsthistoriker und Katzenexperte, begibt sie sich auf eine Reise durch die Zeit. Sie begegnen Babas wilder Urahnin Felis und der altägyptischen Katzengöttin Bastet, lernen Wissenswertes über die Rolle der Katze in Mittelalter und Aufklärung, stechen mit den wagemutigsten Schiffskatzen in See und folgen den Spuren von Babas Vorfahren bis hin ins Weltall. - Amüsanter Streifzug: von der prähistorischen Felis bis zu den berühmten Katzen der Gegenwart - Humorvolles Katzenbuch: Anekdoten und Geschichten über eine Jahrtausende alte Beziehung - Historisch fundiert: Alles über Abstammung, Mythologie und Historie der beliebten Stubentiger - Geschenkbuch in hochwertiger Ausstattung, reich illustriert und mit ungewöhnlichen Fotografien Was Katzen denken und wie sie den Menschen immer wieder eroberten Katze und Mensch: Diese Konstellation hat Weltgeschichte geschrieben! Stubentiger Baba erklärt, wie clevere Samtpfoten der Historie ihren Stempel aufgedrückt haben. Wer wissen will, wie sich Katzen über die Jahrtausende hinweg selbst domestizierten und so flauschig wie geschmeidig vom Leben und Denken der Menschen Besitz ergriffen haben, liegt mit diesem Buch goldrichtig. Ein ungewöhnliches und unterhaltsames Geschenk für Katzenliebhaber und alle, die es werden wollen. Ihre Katze rät: Sie brauchen dieses Buch, denn die Geschichte der Katze wird hier endlich hinreichend gewürdigt!